


Everything Stays

by insanityrunsinthe_family



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: College AU, F/M, reader is highschool friends with edelgard and hubert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22018969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insanityrunsinthe_family/pseuds/insanityrunsinthe_family
Summary: This was Ferdinand? You remembered him in high school. Vividly, actually. You really did not recognize him though ... You just turned to Hubert with a look of pure confusion. He sighed. “Ferdinand has matured a lot in the last few years.”
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	Everything Stays

**Author's Note:**

> Yes the title is from the Rebecca Sugar song.

You were ecstatic when you saw your high school best friend in passing on your way to get lunch during you first week at university. Edelgard was looking as good as ever. You two had stopped to catch up over lunch. You learned she was studying business. You knew she was the one in her family that was expected to take over her father’s business. You also knew she could have taken over the business without going to school. She already had a lot of business sense, and all of her father’s coworkers would have bent over backwards to help her. You had a feeling she was in college for the social experience more than anything. It was like she wanted to hold onto youthful joy for as long as she could. She’d already had to grow up too quickly.

You had to ask about Hubert. He was the missing piece in your little trio. He was a few years older than you, so for the most part it was just Edelgard and you in high school, but he practically lived at her house, so you still saw him like every day. The three of you had been inseparable. She assured you that he was lurking around campus somewhere. He was also a business major. He was adamant about following her into the family business. She confided in you that it had actually been a big fight between the two of them. She wanted him to pursue something he was passionate about for his own sake. She didn’t want him devoting his life to her problems. Their compromise was that he would take elective classes in subjects he was interested in. She still hoped he would change his major, though both of you agreed that was it unlikely. It felt so nice to get to see her again. It really felt like everything was coming together. Like life was going to go back to the way it was supposed to be.

Hubert really was the same as ever. After a few weeks of school, you two had already fallen into a routine of going to a coffee shop once a week. You’d order either a coffee or tea, depending on your caffeine need. He would always order a black coffee. The two of you would go sit in the back of the café and do homework while chatting. Your conversations typically circled around true crime, paranormal stories, podcasts, and horror movies. Sometimes you two would just flirt with the idea of homicide.

You two were currently discussing a true crime podcast you had recently discovered, when someone came up and rudely interrupted you. “Oh Hubert! Funny seeing you here!”

You recognized the voice, but not the man. You couldn’t place who he was. He had really long copper hair and hazel eyes that almost matched. And he was tan with a lot of sun freckles on his face. He was actually very handsome, so you almost forgave him for interrupting you talking about a cult.

Hubert deadpanned as he turned around to address the mystery man, “Oh Ferdinand. It’s great to see you.”

The sarcasm was just dripping off of that sentence. This was Ferdinand? You remembered him in high school. Vividly, actually. You really did not recognize him though. In Ferdinand’s fashion; however, the sarcasm completely went over his head and he just started up some conversation with Hubert. He was so talkative, but in an optimistic puppy dog sort of way. Considering what you remembered about him, his cheery attitude towards Hubert was bizarre. The two of them had hated each other vehemently. His rambling went on for a little while before he remembered he was there for some tea and went back to the line to order some. You just turned to Hubert with a look of pure confusion. He sighed. “Ferdinand has matured a lot in the last few years.”

~~~

You were hunched over your desk in AP History class drawing. Class had yet to start, so you knew you wouldn’t get lectured by your teacher. Still, you were jolted out of your creative haze by a bang on the desk. You looked up and there was Ferdinand. Fucking Ferdinand. “I can’t believe you got 1 more answer correct! Next time I’ll get a higher score for sure. How long did you study for the exam?”

You stared blankly at him. “…Study?”

He gave a frustrated groan. You didn’t study at all, and you weren’t competitive either, so you really didn’t get why he was so passionate about doing better than you. At the same time, it was kind of funny that you did better without studying. You didn’t want to show it though; he was a nuisance, and the more you ignored him the sooner he would go away. As soon as Edie came into class, he went to harass her for getting a perfect score, and you were left to finish your drawing.

Once Hubert had graduated from high school, Ferdinand followed Edie and you around everywhere. He was super annoying. It was like having a yappy King Cavalier dog following you around. He’d just talk about school assignments and how he was going to surpass Edie and be Valedictorian. That, or he’d talk about his Ag classes. He was taking practically every Ag class he could fit into his schedule. You had a feeling he did extra curriculars with the Ag classes too. He was always talking about his horses at home, or the next rodeo.

Edie told you that her and Ferdinand’s dads worked together really closely, but from what you could gather, did not get along well. That clearly rubbed off on these two. Edie would try to shut Ferdinand’s competitive nature down, but tended to get wrapped up in it anyways. If it weren’t for the fact that you’d known Edie for years, you would have suspected that there was some romantic tension. You and Hubert regularly daydreamed about how to shut him up permanently. You would have never acted on it, of course, but that didn’t stop you from giving him some colorful threats when he overstepped a boundary.

  
~~~

You were absolutely dumbfounded. Almost thankfully, Ferdinand came back to your table when he got his order. Because of this, you could ask Ferdinand about the changes in his life. Hilariously, he didn’t recognize you either. After a few moments you watched realization hit him, and then his face lit up. “Oh! I haven’t seen you in years! You went to a junior college, didn’t you? How have you been?”

You were surprised that he remembered. You were pretty sure you had only talked about your college plans with him once? “Yeah I got all of my general education classes at a two year so that I could focus on studio courses when I got here. Plus, it was going to be a lot cheaper in the long run.”

“Studio courses? What are you majoring in, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m an art major. You?”

He smiled proudly, and you knew you had asked a question that gave him the opportunity to brag. Oh no. “I’m double majoring in Psychology and Hippology. That’s, um, Equine science. I’m going to be an equine therapist.”

“Is that like, a therapist for horses? Or a therapist that uses horses for their work?”

“The latter. Horses have a healing property.”

You nodded. That was a very mature response. As much as he loved horses in high school, it made sense that he would want to work with horses for the rest of his life. There was something else that you really wanted to know though. It was way more important than his major. “Your hair is long now. When did you start growing it out?”

He held out a strand of his own hair. “Oh. When I moved out of my parents’ house, I started growing it out. I’d actually wanted to grow it out for a long time, but my father was very… particular about my appearance.”

There was a lot left unspoken in that statement. You just smiled supportively. “I totally understand how you feel. It looks really good like this. You look really happy too.”

The smile he gave was blinding. It was like pointing a telescope directly at the sun and then looking right into it like a fucking moron. Even you had to admit the smile was charming. It didn’t make you want to strangle him like his cocky smile used to in high school. He was still very talkative, but it was way more subdued now. He also seemed a bit more aware of other people in a conversation. His voice wasn’t as grating anymore either. He even made an effort not to talk over anyone else. It was really surprising.

The next day you recounted it all to Edelgard. “So, I saw Ferdinand Aegir for the first time in years recently.”

She smiled. You couldn’t tell if it was because she was guessing how it went, or if Hubert had already told her. “He’s a lot different, isn’t he?”

“Yeah what the hell happened?”

She sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “I won’t get too into it, because it’s his story to tell, but his father lost his job over some sketchy business dealings. It woke him up to the fact that the man grooming him to be a carbon copy of him wasn’t exactly a good role model.”

You nodded at her explanation. “I remember in high school he wanted to go into politics. Or, he said he wanted to. It was probably more like his dad wanted him to. He looks so much happier with his crazy double major.”

“Yeah. Once he was really acting of his own will, he realized he was just doing what his dad expected of him.”

It was crazy to you that you would really have to relearn everything about him. He was a totally different person. The annoying gangly shadow had matured into a happy confident sunbeam. What felt even weirder to you was that you actively wanted to get to know him again. Edelgard must have read your mind when she spoke again. “Ferdinand actually hangs out with us a lot. He’d been traveling with the company he was interning with, and that’s why he wasn’t around when you started the semester. You’ll be seeing a lot of him now. I hope you can survive.”

You smiled. “Oh, that’s absolutely not an issue.”

The smile you gave was so soft, Edelgard couldn’t help but smirk at you. She had a feeling the two of you were going to get really close, real fast.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is the last of the batch of reader insert fics I busted out right after graduation. If you want to see more of my work and keep up with what I'm doing, check out my twitter [here](https://twitter.com/CyrinsCove)


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